Barack Obama–the Master of Illusion….

Call Barack Obama Houdini, because his campaign is one big magic act. He has created illusion after illusion, and the mainstream media have either, let him get away with it, or in some cases, actively aided and abetted him. Please, allow me to explain.

First of all, during the Democratic primary Obama created the illusion, starting in late February, that he was already the nominee because he had a slight lead in pledged delegates. Obama campaign manager, David Plouffe, even went so far as to say that, “She can’t catch us.” Obama succeeded in framing the narrative, with the help of the MSM and the DNC, that he was the inevitable nominee and that Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race. Linked below is a column by Jonathan Alter, written before OH and TX even voted, about why Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race.

(Then again, in this column, Alter says—and I quote—that, “The much ballyhooed race for the superdelegates is nearly irrelevant”. Funny, I remember the superdelegates actually deciding the race, but I digress.) Obama was so successful in creating his “inevitable nominee” illusion that he even had former presidential candidates, like Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, and Ted Kennedy saying that Hillary should get out of the race. What’s so ironic about all of this, is that in 1980, when Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter (who was a sitting president mind you) for the Democratic nomination, Kennedy was down by almost a thousand delegates to Carter and no one was demanding that he get out of the race. Anyway, my point is that by the time the Democratic primary was over, Hillary was down only 126 elected or pledged delegates to Obama (out of over 3000 elected delegates). However, by the time the end of the Democratic primary rolled around, Obama was down by over 600,000 votes since March 4th (OH and TX primaries), as our own Dan McGlaughlin has so beautifully documented on Redstate before (his diary titled, “Obamomentum” is linked below). Not to mention, Obama lost the overall popular vote by approximately 300,000 votes (give or take), and he lost every major large industrial state and swing state except for MO (and he won that by only one percentage point). Furthermore, neither Obama, nor Hillary, could have made it to 2118 pledged delegates (the magic number) without the help of the superdelegates. Hillary finished the primary with a total of 1638.5 pledged delegates and Obama finished with 1766.5 pledged delegates—neither one of them was anywhere near 2118. Oh, and by the way, no where do the rules state that the person with a slight lead in pledged delegates is the nominee. The rules state that no one becomes the nominee until they reach the magic number (in this case, 2118), and that if no candidate reaches the magic number, then the superdelegates decide. And no, it is not written anywhere that the superdelegates must go with the pledged delegate leader. The superdelegates can go with the leader in the popular vote (Hillary), the leader in the GE polls against John McCain (Hillary), the leader in the elected delegates (Obama), or whoever won the big, swing states (again, Hillary). Bottom line, as long as no candidate reaches the magic number, the superdelegates can use whatever criteria that they want to pick the nominee—heck, they can use a Ouija board if they want to. Obama was not automatically the nominee because he held a slight elected delegate lead. In fact, he’s still not the nominee (he is actually the presumptive nominee) and won’t be until the superdelegates vote at the convention. Obama just did a better job, with the help of the MSM, of creating the narrative, or rather the illusion, that he was already the nominee—even though he hadn’t actually won anything yet.

So, what does this have to do with the general election you ask? Everything. Why? Because, now Obama is busy creating another illusion. During the Democratic primary, Obama created the illusion that he was already the nominee—now, he is creating the illusion that he is already the president. Granted, he is going about it in a much more subtle way—for instance, he isn’t going to have surrogates ask John McCain to drop out of the race. However, anyone who has ever taken psychology 101 or marketing 101 knows the power that images have over the subconscious, and that if something is repeated enough, people will think that it’s true. In other words, if people see Obama in enough roles that were previously reserved for presidents, and treated with the same deference usually only reserved for presidents, his campaign is hoping that they will start subconsciously thinking of him as a president and vote accordingly—just like his campaign tricked the superdelegates into thinking that he was already the nominee.

For starters, Obama has given how many speeches since he wrapped up the Democratic primary? I’ve literally lost count. Let’s see–he’s given a speech on patriotism and values, he’s given a speech on faith, he’s given a Father’s Day speech, he’s given a speech to the NAACP, and he gave a speech the night he wrapped up the nomination. I’m sure that there are more, but that’s all that I can think of off of the top of my head. Anyway, my point is that, in recent memory, no presidential candidate has ever given so many speeches in such a short period of time. In the last month, Obama has given more speeches than President Bush and John McCain put together. Oh, and Obama is giving his convention acceptance speech at Invesco Field to 75,000 screaming fans, similar to what JFK did by accepting the nod in a large outdoor stadium. Coincidence? I think not.

Oh, and who can forget Obama’s recent “presidential seal”? OK, OK, that one didn’t go over so well—probably because the slogan, “Vero Possumus”, sounds at best like some sort of road kill, and at worst like some sort of communicable disease that one would pick up from wild animals while camping. Oh, and it looked extremely arrogant, but I digress. However, succeed or fail, the intention was still the same—to make Obama look like a president. The Swamp Blog, written by The Baltimore Sun, agrees (linked below).

Now, I am sure that you all have heard about Obama’s attempting to give a speech at Germany’s Brandenburg Gate—another stunt that didn’t go over too well because of perceived arrogance. Let’s see, shall we—who in the past have given speeches at the Brandenburg Gate? Ronald Regan, JFK, Bill Clinton—what did they all have in common? Oh yeah, they were already presidents when they gave speeches at The Brandenburg Gate. Like Charles Krauthammer said in his excellent column, “Could you imagine if a German pol wanted to give a speech at the Statue of Liberty”? (The link is below).

And finally, Barack Obama is having three network anchors follow him during his upcoming trip abroad to Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Jordan, and Europe (he’s still giving a speech in Germany, but now at the Victory Column, with the Brandenburg Gate in the background supposedly). Do any of you remember three network anchors, ever, following any other presidential candidate around during a trip abroad (or any president for that matter)? I sure don’t. I mean, John McCain has been to Iraq a total of eight times—several times in the last year—and you hardly heard a peep out of the media when he went. Clearly, what Obama is hoping to do is to create the illusion that he is presidential (or at the very least, an extremely important person), by having a gaggle of media acolytes follow him around. However, this is all very silly if you think about it. Someone should inform Barack Obama that voting “present” is not an accomplishment, putting your name on other people’s legislation is not an accomplishment, and hopping on an airplane is certainly not an accomplishment. In other words, if simply visiting Germany gave one foreign policy credentials, then Clark Griswold could run for president. (Sorry if link below is silly, but it’s Friday, and I’m indulging myself.) On a side note, our own Josh Painter recently wrote an excellent blog for Redstate about Obama’s “European Vacation” (titled “National Buffoon’s European Vacation”).

So, in a nutshell, with all of the speeches, the fake presidential seal, and the “European Vacation”, Obama is trying to subtly (or not so subtly) give the voters the illusion that, “Hey, I am pretty much already president anyway, or will be, so you might as well get it over with and vote for me. It is futile to resist me. Kneel before Zod.” (Again, forgive the corny link, but I am having fun.)

Another illusion that Obama has successfully pulled off, is that he is above politics and petty attacks. Yet all the while, he uses sexist and ageist “code words” and slimy surrogates to demean his opponents. For instance, he successfully painted Hillary Clinton as a shrill, cackling, witch whose “claws come out” and he is in the process of painting John McCain as a “confused”, doddering, old fool who is “losing his bearings”. Right now, it seems that Jake Tapper is the only member of the MSM who is wise to Obama’s game (links to Tapper columns below, as well as a link to a previous blog that I wrote that further details Obama’s use of slimy surrogates if anyone is curious).

However, our own Moe Lane has previously written about Obama’s past use of “code words”. Furthermore, Obama has also created the illusion that anyone who runs against him is a racist or will use racist attacks against him. In other words, he falsely accuses his opponents (and those that don’t vote for him—see his infamous “Bitter Comments” for proof) of racism, yet he is considered to be “above divisive politics”—that’s a magic act if ever I’ve seen one. (Linked below are two columns discussing accusations of racism leveled at Obama’s opponents—I highly recommend the one by Pat Buchanan.)

And, last but definitely not least, the biggest illusion that Obama has pulled off thus far, is to create the impression that he was a “strong, anti-war candidate”—or that he ever had a strong position on the Iraq war one way or the other. Our own BigGator5 posted this damning Youtube video today on Redstate—it says everything that you need to know about Barack Obama’s position—or lack there of—on the war in Iraq. I posted the link below. After watching this video, the only conclusion that one can come to is that, in regard to Obama’s position on the Iraq war, Bill Clinton was right when he said that, “This is the biggest fairy tale that I’ve ever seen.”

So, in conclusion my friends, Obama will continue hypnotizing the masses with his magic act (who is going to stop him, the MSM?) until we speak up and start calling him out. I mean, it is absolutely ridiculous that a candidate running for president of the United States is taking a media tour of Europe, Israel, Jordan, Iraq (for the second time ever), and Afghanistan (for the first time ever) in order to create the false appearance that he has foreign policy experience–especially given the fact that Obama has never held one hearing of the Senate subcommittee on Afghanistan that he chairs. However, his surrogates in the MSM are selling his “European Vacation” as “presidential” (“Papal” according to Charles Krauthammer in an appearance on Fox News), instead of pathetic—which it is. My friends, it is up to us to “pull the curtain back on the wizard”, so to speak, and expose Obama as the inexperienced neophyte and slick Chicago politician (not some “above it all” messiah) that he really is—before it’s too late.